To provide cellular wireless communication service, a wireless service provider typically employs an access network that provides wireless service to one or more access terminals (e.g., cell phones, PDAs, laptops, netbooks, tablets, and/or other wirelessly equipped devices) in respective service areas. Each such service area may be divided geographically into a number of coverage areas, such as cells and sectors, each defined by a radio frequency (RF) radiation pattern from a respective base transceiver station (BTS). Within each coverage area, the BTS's RF radiation pattern may provide one or more wireless links, each on a carrier (or set of carriers), over which the access terminal may communicate with access terminals. In turn, the access network may provide connectivity with the one or more transport networks, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or the Internet.
The wireless links may carry communications between the access network and the access terminals according to any of a variety of wireless protocols. Depending on the protocol employed, each wireless link may also be divided into a plurality of channels for carrying communications between the access network and the access terminals. For example, each wireless link may include a plurality of forward link channels, such as forward traffic channels, for carrying communications from the access network to the access terminals. As another example, each wireless link may include a plurality of reverse link channels, such as reverse traffic channels, for carrying communications from the access terminals to the access network. Typically, the number of channels on a given wireless link, and thus the number of simultaneous communications the given wireless link can carry, is limited by hardware and/or protocol constraints. As such, an access network may try to conserve its limited supply of wireless link channels.
One common way an access network conserves channels is by employing a paging process to locate idle access terminals before assigning traffic channels to those access terminals. In particular, when an access network receives an incoming communication for an idle access terminal, the access network may initiate a sequence of pages of the access terminal in the service area that encompasses the access terminal's last-known location (i.e. the last-known service area). For instance, the access network may initiate a first one of a sequence of pages of the access terminal in a first paging area, which may encompass one or more coverage areas within the last-known service area. If the access terminal is located in the first paging area and responds to the first one of a sequence of pages, the access network may then assign a traffic channel to the idle access terminal in the coverage area of the first paging area from which the access terminal responded. Alternatively, if the access terminal is not located in the first paging area and/or does not respond to the first page message, the access network may initiate a second one of a sequence of pages of the access terminal in a second paging area, which may encompass the first paging area and/or one or more other coverage areas within the last-known service area. The access network may continue this process until it locates the access terminal, pages the access terminal in all coverage areas within the last-known service area, and/or reaches a time or attempt limit. This paging process may thus enable the access network to locate the access terminal before assigning it a traffic channel.